New Belgium’s Asheville Brewery Opens for Public Tastings May 2

Riverside tap room experience is unique to WNC brewery scene

On Monday, May 2, beer fans can kick back along the French Broad River in Asheville and sip a Fat Tire Amber Ale in New Belgium’s sparkling new “Liquid Center” tasting room. The doors swing open at 21 Craven Street, Asheville, NC and the public will be able to taste New Belgium beers for the first time at the brewery’s new location. Tasting room hours are Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8:00 p.m. Public brewery tours will start this summer.

Year-round and current seasonal offerings are always on tap, and Lips of Faith and Hop Kitchen series beers are available upon release. La Folie, New Belgium’s sour flagship, pours on Sundays, and occasionally guests will find a rare or one-off beer as a surprise. Gluten-reduced Glutiny pale and golden ales are available.

On tap only at New Belgium and available in Folly Packs through May, RyePA is a hoppy specialty beer brewed with Carolina Rye™, heirloom rye grown in North Carolina and floor malted by Riverbend Malt House in Asheville. RyePA also incorporates rye from Colorado Malting, a fourth-generation family farm in Alamosa, CO.

The 6,000 square foot riverside tap room is clad in local artist-made bars, tables and chairs crafted from nearly 14 linear miles of repurposed wood salvaged from the stockyard formerly onsite. A cantilevered deck sits above the new greenway and French Broad River, local food trucks will be on site, and an event lawn will open this summer to host bike in movies and general outdoor fun.

The brewery and Liquid Center (LC) campus design is inspired by the flow of the French Broad River, one of only a few rivers in the world that flow south to north. Guests enter the LC on the southern end of the property and when tours start this summer, they follow the flow of the river through the brewing process to packaging at the north end of the campus.

“It feels like home,” said Tyler Foos, Asheville LC Manager. “When you visit, you’ll recognize us by the New Belgium beer quality and warmth you’ve come to know and love from our coworkers. And, by partnering up with neighboring artists to reuse materials from this site, we’ve added some awesome Asheville charm and history.”

The New Belgium campus was formerly home to a stockyard, auction house and auto salvage repair business. New Belgium deconstructed those buildings and has reused or recycled ninety seven percent of the materials, paying homage to the history and incorporating a continued sense of place and collective memory into its new use. Ninety percent of the artists and artisans involved with the tasting room have studios and shops within about five miles of the brewery. Asheville-based Alchemy Design, worked with the New Belgium creative team developing the vision and incorporating artisan touches into the LC, including:

Known for its sustainable business practices, the Fort Collins, CO, brewery purchased the 18-acre urban brownfield property as a targeted, sustainable, urban in-fill development strategy. The east coast locale minimizes the company’s national distribution footprint as they reach remaining east coast states, and enables them to engage with guests in a meaningful way through tastings and award-winning tours. The company is seeking LEED certification on the brewery, Liquid Center and warehouse, located eight miles west of the brewery. Some of their local sustainability partners include:

An August 27, 2016 CeleBEERation in Asheville, will mark their 25th anniversary and Asheville brewery opening. Tickets will be available at www.NewBelgium.com this summer. Fat Tire Amber Ale and Ranger IPA are flowing from the Asheville brewery to cold boxes and taps on the east coast.

About New Belgium Brewing

New Belgium Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Fort Collins, Colorado. It opened in 1991 after Jeff Lebesch, the brewery's founder, took his homebrewing passion commercially. In 2011, it produced 712,800 barrels of its various labels. As of 2012, it was the third-largest craft brewery and eighth-largest overall brewery in the United States.

Fat Tire, an amber ale, is the company's flagship beer.

New Belgium will be opening the doors to their Asheville location located in the River Arts District in 2016.